


Sapphire

by MidoriKurenaiYume



Category: Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Random Encounters, hints of romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 14:56:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13126053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidoriKurenaiYume/pseuds/MidoriKurenaiYume
Summary: A series of strange, almost fated encounters between Arturia and Gilgamesh.





	Sapphire

**Author's Note:**

> Modern day AU, based on a research on jewels I did a few years ago for school :)
> 
> Title: comes from a Kalafina song, B-side of their 7th single.

…

o…o

…

Arturia stared at the object on the top shelf, torn between sighing and growling in frustration. Her short stature was something she had gotten used to, but sometimes it could indeed pose a problem.

Finally caving, dismissing her hurt pride, she looked around, eyes searching, and she soon spotted a blond person in her vicinity, on whom she focused because of his height.

She politely approached him.

“Excuse me,” she began, seeing him turn unnatural crimson eyes on her. “Could you please be so kind as to take the lion doll with the blue ribbon on the top shelf for me? I’m afraid I can’t reach it.”

The man stared at her, expression inscrutable for a few moments, until he turned away from her abruptly.

“I’m not your servant; find another fool to offer you assistance.”

Taken aback by his harshness, at first she blinked at his retreating form, before gathering herself and narrowing her eyes at him. What a pompous, arrogant jerk…! As if she had asked for something outrageous…!

As he was retreating, she felt her irritation grow and said, not too loud but loud enough for him to hear, “You are under no obligation to help me, but that doesn’t mean you have the right to be so rude. And by the way,” she leaned down, her eye caught by something on the floor, “you dropped this.”

It was a small, dark etui, half-open, and it seemed to be in very expensive but fluffy material. The stranger stopped, turning around and walking back, and immediately took the object from her hands without thanking her.

Arturia kept her expression composed as she added, almost under her breath, “I’m sure that the person for whom this is would not appreciate remaining without it.”

This time, his crimson eyes focused on her completely, and he questioned, “What makes you think this is for someone else?”

“It’s not your style,” she readily replied, then turned her back on him, looking around for another person who would be able to help her in her endeavour.

She still wanted to get the lion doll, after all; Irisviel’s baby shower was going to take place in a few hours, and she had been too busy at work to find the time to go buy a present until now.

Before she could take more than three steps though, she found a hand holding the doll in front of her face, and looked up, surprised.

The crimson-eyed stranger was staring at her, holding the toy with a disdainful expression.

“As you recovered my article, I’ll give you the present you intend to buy,” he stiffly told her.

She took the lion doll after a slight hesitation, but couldn’t help asking, “How do you know it’s a present?”

The briefest hint of a smirk curved his lips.

“It’s _your_ style.”

…

o…o

…

She studied the small jewels, still undecided, even if she had already set her eyes on one she preferred. Glancing at the clock, she made up her mind.

“I’d like this one, please.” She indicated a small silver brooch with minuscule decorations in blue topaz. As was tradition in her family, she was going to give a jewel as a present for the birth of her friend’s baby.

As soon as she completed her purchase and turned around to leave, she found herself face to face with a crimson-eyed person whom she had already met some weeks before. She blinked.

It was the man with the leather etui, who had been unceremoniously rude but who had ended up helping her get the lion doll nonetheless. He was holding a strange golden chain, and seemed to recognize her as well; in fact, she realized that he had probably been staring at her for a while.

He smirked at her.

“Buying another present, I see,” he commented, eyes glinting with amusement.

She narrowed her eyes after bristling slightly. This man was rather forward, but she was rendered curious by his accurate guess – the second one, in fact.

Therefore, she disregarded her instinctual desire to be as reserved as usual and questioned him, “How do you know it’s a present this time as well? Is this brooch my style again?”

He nodded, openly entertained by her choice of words, but his eyes gleamed.

“It is, but the mere fact that you’re buying it tells me that it’s for someone else.”

Her eyebrows pulled together as she stared at him in confusion, but his smirk merely widened as he came suddenly much closer. “Besides, such a jewel wouldn’t suit you.”

Arturia took a step back, shaking her head slightly. Why had she even started a conversation with this stranger? Since when was she being so incautious?

She gave a small, noncommittal movement with her head in his direction before swiftly taking her leave.

She didn’t notice how his crimson eyes flickered from her to another jewel on display behind her, an engraved silver necklace with a large, beautiful sapphire in the middle.

…

o…o

…

She didn’t know how it happened or why, but it seemed as if she was suddenly meeting the crimson-eyed stranger almost everywhere.

At the bus stop, at the post office, at the bank, at the supermarket, in many different places in town, she often happened to bump into him. She always greeted him with a polite nod, but as time went by, she couldn’t help finding it puzzling.

If she hadn’t known any better, she would have thought he was following her.     

…

o…o

…

A few months later, Arturia was at the train station, looking for a place to sit down, as her train had been cancelled and she had now three nice hours of waiting in front of her.

Finally finding a place to sit, she looked around – and to her slightly exasperated surprise, she spotted the mysterious stranger standing not too far from her.

This time, however, he wasn’t looking in her direction at all; in fact, he was talking to another man, who had long green hair and looked similar to a ghost due to his extremely pale skin colour. They seemed to reach an agreement on something, and the crimson-eyed stranger walked off in the direction of the shops. The green-haired one instead looked up, and met Arturia’s gaze before she could tear her eyes away.

To her even greater surprise, he smiled brightly and walked in her direction, indicating the seat next to her and cheerfully asking, “Do you mind if I sit?”

She eyed him with some mistrust, but then carefully replied, “Not at all.”

He replied with another bright smile before sitting down.

“Thank you; I’ve recently been discharged from the hospital and I’m not yet fully recovered.”

She didn’t say anything, and did her best to avoid staring at him. He didn’t seem to have her same reservations, and kept smiling at her.

“You’re the Sapphire woman, aren’t you?” he continued, his eyes alight with excitement.

She frowned, exceedingly puzzled as she didn’t understand what he meant.

“I beg your pardon?”

His smile didn’t falter.

“That’s what Gilgamesh calls you,” he explained, and his knowing look made it clear that he was talking about his friend, the mysterious crimson-eyed man whom she had been meeting everywhere in the past few months.

She did in fact have many questions to ask about him, and it was rather fortunate that the green-haired man in front of her seemed eager to tell her everything he knew.

“Some months ago, Gilgamesh dropped a small case containing my medicines, and he told me that a woman had picked it up for him even as he had been too preoccupied to care about her. Said woman had been trying to fetch a doll with a blue ribbon.” His eyes looked almost childish in their enthusiasm. “Then later on, he saw the woman – that is, _you_ – buying a jewel with blue gems. And every time you accidentally met, he mentioned that there is always something blue around you, as if it were your signature colour.” His smile was almost blindingly bright. “Since you’ve become extremely interesting and precious to him, he associates the thought of you to a precious blue jewel – therefore, he chose the sapphire, and he nicknamed you the Sapphire woman.”

Trying to take in the amount of information she had just received, she only fully absorbed the last part of it.

“I am… _precious_ to him?” She hadn’t meant to ask that aloud, but Enkidu only grinned widely once again.

“I assume you are not particularly well-acquainted with Gilgamesh, but did you know that he’s a linguist and an etymology expert?” He laughed a little, before continuing, “I teased him mercilessly about the nickname he chose for you, until he reluctantly explained that ‘sapphire’ is a word that derives from Jewish and among its meanings there is ‘most beautiful thing’. As a gem, it is a symbol for loyalty, calmness and balance.”

She could do nothing except stare at him, wide-eyed, unable to come up with any kind of reply that would give credit to her speech capabilities, when suddenly a voice interrupted them.

“What are you doing, Enkidu?”

The green-haired man – Enkidu, apparently – grinned mischievously, before standing up and slyly answering, “Oh, nothing much, Gil. I was only telling her about your deep fascination with _sapphires_.”

Not giving the crimson-eyed man the time to do anything more than narrow his eyes, he stood up, smoothly taking one of the tickets out of his hands. “Thank you for buying my ticket for me, Gil. I’m sure I can find the train on my own now. See you!”

And without another word, he waltzed away, completely impervious to the glare the crimson-eyed man was sending him.

The silence between the two remaining people stretched, until he – Gilgamesh – casually said, his tone completely calm and collected, “There aren’t any sapphires that fascinate me. There is only one, one single gem, and that’s you.”

She just stared at him, and then shook her head.

“You have to be out of your mind. You don’t even know my name!”

“I do, Arturia,” he smoothly interjected, “and while I would have preferred Enkidu not meddling in this, he did not exaggerate in what he probably told you about myself being taken with you.”

She couldn’t help it – she gaped.

And then she almost spluttered, “You… you can’t just go around telling people things like these!”

“I’m not telling people. I’m telling _you_ ,” he pointed out, deadpan. “Only precious jewels have the right to be told about their breathtaking beauty.”

“Will you stop talking as if you took lines from a book?” was all she could think of replying, and he gave a haughty smirk.

“As if I would _ever_ do that.”

She pondered this for a moment. He was still standing in front of her, not having taken the seat Enkidu had vacated.

“Well – there are people who consider it romantic,” she had to admit, against her better judgement, but he took her aback by giving her a knowing look.

“I’m not one of them, and neither are you, Arturia.”

She bristled. She was far too transparent to him, it seemed.

“…indeed. I prefer personal words.”

He nodded, seemingly expecting it. “And that’s what I’ve been giving you.”

She raised an eyebrow, her guardedness forgotten as she gradually began to feel able to deal with the situation more calmly.

“It doesn’t sound like it. All this talking about jewels and beauty seems to come out of a romance novel.”

He raised an eyebrow as well, before assuming a strangely thoughtful expression as he studied her.

“I see. You believe that beauty and jewels are relegated only to books and not real life.”

She blinked – the conversation was taking some unexpected turns.

“That’s not what I meant, I just–”

“Ah, I should have expected it. Denial.”

She couldn’t help it feeling torn between being bewildered and being completely disoriented. The stranger in front of her was saying one absurdity after the other, yet he wasn’t being senseless and it was obvious that he couldn’t be dismissed as foolish. She couldn’t recall having ever had such a surreal conversation, but at the same time, also one she didn’t want to walk out of.

He seemed to know, because a smirk appeared on his lips again.

He took a step forward, and finally took a seat next to her, staring into her green eyes intently.

“Making you acknowledge your interest in me and later making you fall in love with me is going to be my divinest challenge indeed.”

All she could do was stare at him.

“…Your conceit is unbelievable,” she finally replied.

“I know.” His smirk was now wide, for all the world to see. “Make sure you become familiar with it. After all, my desire is for the person I’m in love with to have the opportunity… and the time… to learn to return my feelings.” His eyes regarded her with deep intensity. “No matter how long that takes.”

…

o…o

…

**Author's Note:**

> The jewel Gilgamesh was staring at is probably going to be his wedding present to Arturia ;)  
> Thank you so much for reading!!!


End file.
